


The Doomed Mentalist

by UndeadWithoutCoffee



Series: The Doomed Prince Collection [2]
Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Egyptian Literature & Mythology, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 05:29:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18543244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UndeadWithoutCoffee/pseuds/UndeadWithoutCoffee
Summary: Jane misbehaves on a case (when does he not?), though this once he actually feels sorry for causing Lisbon grief. Also part of a Writer's Challenge to incorporate an ancient egyption fairytale into a fanfic.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Actually rather cute and was result of a writer's challenge to implement an ancient egyptiant legend into a story.
> 
> I translated one myself from hieroglyphics as part of a college class and it was decided to use it as a challenge.
> 
> Please keep in mind that I am not a native english writer. So feel free to point out errors as I want to get back to writing to improve my english.

  
  
  
  
With a sigh, Jane flopped onto his bed in the cheap motel room and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Admittedly, today had not been one of his finest days: he had nagged Lisbon relentlessly and took his boredom and frustration about being stuck in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere out on her, despite seeing her blanch several times throughout the day. While he loved getting a rise out of their fearless leader on any day, he usually had at least some semblance of sympathy with her emotional state and backed off when he felt her getting close to her limits. But not so today, even though he had known she was not feeling her best in the first place.  
  
Making the resolve to apologize (and to actually mean this apology!) to her first thing next morning, Jane laid back and closed his eyes for a moment. Knowing that he wouldn't find sleep any time soon he turned over to his side and grabbed the book he had liberated from Lisbons go-bag earlier that day: 'Egyptian Fairytales' ´, who knew...  
  
A few minutes later, just as Jane was about to get fully immersed into this story about the magician's contest, he heard someone heaving next door and silently cursed the paper thin walls until it dawned on him that Lisbon had the room next to his, and was apparently feeling really bad by now. With a sinking feeling to the stomach he went over to her door and knocked.  
  
"Lisbon?", he called, while juggling with the book and rummaging in his pockets to find something he could use to pick the lock on her door.  
  
"Go away Jane!", came the, admittedly predictable, reply followed by a muffled sigh and the creaking of bed springs as Lisbon curled up again under the covers.  
  
With a sigh Jane shook his head and opened the door, assessing the situation inside: a very pale Lisbon was lying in the bed in foetal position apparently too exhausted to even glare at him. Jane made a beeline for the bed and sat down next to Lisbon before he gently brushed some strands of hair away from her damp forehead.  
  
"Bit better?", he asked, just getting a tired "Mmmmmm..." as reply.  
  
Sighing Lisbon closed her eyes as his fingertips brushed over her forehead. True enough, the sickly pallor of her face was already less pronounced telling him that the queasiness had subsided somewhat. However her tensed form and her hugging her knees tightly showed him that Lisbon was not feeling much better. Considering her grumpiness the past day and her increased intake of chocolate he suddenly had an idea what was wrong with her, and felt even worse for adding to her pile by nagging her all day.  
  
"Do you always feel this bad?", he asked sympathetically.  
  
"Noooo ... only when I'm stressed.", Lisbon mumbled while struggling to open her eyes again to look up at him.  
  
"I'm sorry Teresa.", Jane replied sheepishly and gently nudged her a bit to the knee, "Come on, let me help you!"  
  
For a moment, Lisbon just stared at Jane, contemplating if this was another of his weird games. Deciding that he was sincere this time, she rolled over onto her back and looked at him quizzically. Watching her carefully, Jane slid his hands under the covers and gently placed them on her lower abdomen, below the navel and waited a couple of moments. Only when he saw no further signs of discomfort from Lisbon he applied a bit of pressure.  
  
Feeling him press his hands lightly into her abdomen, Lisbon flinched unconsciously, causing him to pull back and let his hands hover on her skin until she relaxed again. The warmth of his hands and slight pressure seemed to help though as he felt the tension seeping out of her body and watched her eyes fluttering close.  
  
"Sleep well dear...", he whispered when she had fallen asleep and pulled his hands back. Quietly he picked up the book, he had dropped to the bed when he had seen how ill she was, and crept over to the armchair. After he had turned the pages and found the place where he had stopped earlier, he read with a quiet voice to help her stay asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Lisbon slept fitfully during the night, her body being completely exhausted after the horrible day. Still she woke up several times that night. Her dreams seems wild and erratic, just before she woke up, she saw a man and a woman in white clothes, golden jewlery and black braided hair talking with hushed voices in a room that was only lit by the soft light of candles. Then the pictures changed to show a light haired laughing boy in the middle of the desert chasing after a lean dog. During this scene she woke up for the first time after glancing into the sun when she tried to follow the boy and his dog.

Slowly she became aware of her surroundings again and heard a gentle voice:

The seven Hathors greeted the prince and pronounced his destiny; they said he would meet with a sudden death either by a crocodile, or a serpent, or a dog.

The nurses informed the king what the Hathors had said, and the heart of His Majesty was troubled. He commanded that a house should be erected in a lonely place, so that the child might be guarded well, and he provided servants, and all kinds of luxuries, and gave orders that the prince should not be taken outside his safe retreat. It came to pass that the boy grew strong and big. One day he climbed to the flat roof of the house. Looking down, he saw a dog which followed a man, and wondered greatly therat.

Then he spoke to one of the servants, saying: "What is that which follows the man walking along the road?"

"That," answered the servant, "is a dog."

The boy said: "I should like to have one for myself. Bring a dog to me."

She listened a while to the sound of one of her favorite stories being read, when she realised, that it was Janes voice reading softly. She missed the first part of the story but he must have been reading for some time already as she recogized the images from her dream as part of the story.

Meanwhile, Jane had noticed the change of Lisbons breathing pattern and looked up from the book. He dropped his voice to an even more soothing and calm level and started talking her into a light trance before easing her back to sleep with his voice.

For a couple of moments, Lisbon tried to struggle against the lure of Jane's voice, but in the end she felt her conciousness slipping away. There was no chance of resisting Jane's voice when he was determined to work his magic on someone.

During the night she woke up a few more times, but she wasn't so sure if Jane was still there then. She thought she heard his voice but she could have sworn she saw him curled into the armchair and fast asleep too. The next time she could really remember waking up fully was in the morning to the sound of her alarm. When she turned over to check on Jane, she saw that the chair he had occupied that night was empty and her book lying on the nightstand.

Sighing she got up and grabbed her clothes to get changed. She felt better than yesterday, the cramps not completely gone but at least the good night's sleep had helped with the headache and nausea. Still she would have to talk with Jane about what had happened last night. He may have only tried to help her last night, but he had certainly crossed some lines of proffessional behavior. Scratch that, he shattered those lines to dust in the proccess.

With a resolve to corner Jane and talk with him, Lisbon emerged from her room and went to the motel's breakfast area to grab some coffee. However Jane had apparently sensed her plan and did his best to avoid her during the flurry of the day.

Later that day, they were back to Sacramento and wrapped up the remainder of the case. Having collected the reports from her team earlier already, Lisbon had sent them home. Only Jane remained behind but as he was fast asleep, Lisbon decided against waking him up. Afterall he had been awake last night to comfort her, so she reasoned that he deserved some undisturbed sleep, especially as he had actually been on his best behavior despite his pretty obvious attempts to stay away from her.

Shaking her head, she went back into her office and started to put the finishing touches to the past day's case.

"You're not going home any time soon, are you?"

With a sigh, Lisbon looked up at Jane, who interrupted her roughly half an hour after she had sent the rest of the team home.

"I'm not finished yet, Jane.", she replied and turned towards him with her chair as he came to kneel next to her and gazed at her intently. She held his gaze for a couple of moments, before she avoided his stare, closing her eyes and rubbing her temple to fend off the approaching headache. Meanwhile Jane looked at her a while longer and noticed that she was feeling unwell again. Without any words, he pulled her up and dragged her over to her sofa. When she sat down, he pushed the cup of tea over, that he had placed there when he came in.

"Thanks Jane.", Lisbon said and took a sip of the hot beverage. Camomille, she noticed, apparently Jane had been watching her during the day again. When she sat the cup back down, Jane handed her a warm plush owl, that he had just pulled out of the paper bag next to the couch and gently pushed it towards her stomach.

"This hot-water bottle fits in the lowermost drawer of your desk, Teresa." he said and leaned back to take a sip of his own tea.

"Jane, what...", Lisbon began, wanting to talk with Jane about what had happened last night, what was happening right now.

"How does it end?" Jane asked and interrupted her.

"What?", she asked, momentarily out of words and unsure about any answer she could give him.

"The story Lisbon, the Tale of the Doomed Prince. How does it end?"

"Oh," she started, slightly taken aback. "Actually no one knows, I think. That book you found was my mom's, she loved old fairytales and always read them to us. But this one doesn't have an end, apparently it was lost. The original story is 3000 years old afterall. The wife saved the prince from the snake and after that the dog supposedly attacked him, at least most people who translated the story said so, driving the boy to run towards the lake so he can escape the dog. Of course the crocodile waits for him at the lake, but I always imagined that the dog would save his master from the crocodile being killed in the proccess. All the dooms gone, I wanted the boy and the girl to have a happy ending.", Lisbon finished, smiling softly at the memory of her mother and herself talking about how this story should end. That was the reason, why Lisbon had chosen this book to keep from all of her mom's old books.

"That's a good end." Jane replied softly and startled Lisbon when he pushed some strands of hair out of her face. With a last smile at her he got up and turned to leave her office.


End file.
